


White Collar

by SpraceJunkie



Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: I'll add characters as the show up, white collar au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 13:06:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15244020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpraceJunkie/pseuds/SpraceJunkie
Summary: Jack Kelly was the most wanted white collar criminal in the country and possibly the world when he was caught, even though he could only be proven to have done one crime. But everyone was sure he'd also been behind a million other art forgeries and thefts.David Jacobs caught him twice, and is now considering letting him out as a consultant to the FBI white collar division.This is pure and simple a White Collar AU god I love Newsies and White Collar





	White Collar

Getting caught was a lot more underwhelming the second time around.

Maybe it was the depression, he thought idly, listening to the footsteps approaching from behind the pillar he was sitting behind.

“Are you armed?”

Aha. David Jacobs. Of course they’d brought David Jacobs in.

“You know I don’t do guns.”

“Had to check. He’s unarmed, move in.”

“We’re surrounded?”

“Yep.”

“How many?”

“Including my guys, NYPD, swat…everyone.” Jack nodded to himself as David stepped around in front of the pillar. Flashing lights and sirens filled the room, and Jack laughed. “What?” Jack pulled himself to his feet.

“You were wearing the same thing last time you arrested me.” David glanced down at his suit, somewhat self-consciously.

“It’s a classic.” Jack stepped closer, narrowing his eyes at the specks of red covering David’s shoulders. He raised a hand, open palm, to show he wasn’t threatening David, then plucked a piece off the fibers off his shoulder.

“You know what this is?”

“Nobody can figure it out.” Jack’s mind raced, formulating a plan. 

“I can tell you.” He said quickly. “If you agree to meet me in a week.”

“You’re getting another four years, you know.”

“Just meet me, that’s all! A week. If I’m wrong, you don’t need to come at all. But nobody else in the states will know what that is.” He could see David’s mind working.

“Fine.”

“It’s a security fiber. For the new Canadian hundred. Ask them, I’m right.”

The door opened and Jack put his hands behind his back, getting ready for the handcuffs he knew were coming.

“One week. I’m right.” He said, not breaking eye contact, even as his arms were pulled roughly into handcuffs.

It was the longest week of his life.

Reading sucked, especially when he had to read to have all the information he needed to even have a chance at convincing David Jacobs of what he wanted to.

And even a taste of freedom, for less than twenty-four hours, had been enough to make the prospect of four months and four more years drive him crazy.

He needed this to work.

He kept adding his tally marks to the wall. One thousand, three hundred, and thirty-nine marks by the time he met with David Jacobs.

“I was right, wasn’t I?” He said as soon as the door clicked shut behind the FBI agent.

“The Canadians were furious. How did you know?”

“C’mon, David, if I told you my secrets and sources, I wouldn’t have been the FBI’s most wanted white collar criminal for eight years, now would I have?”

“What do you want, Kelly?” Jack pushed his folder of plans across the table. David picked it up and flipped through it.

“You’ve been chasing this guy for as long as you were after me. I know he showed up just after I was arrested. I can help you catch him.”

“How do you know about him?”

“You know everything about me. Why shouldn’t I know everything about you?”

“My husband really appreciates my getting birthday cards from a felon I locked up. Really non-threatening, not anything like stalking.”

“I put effort into those. And it’s not like I sent him cards, too.”

“You know my husband’s birthday?”

“March twenty-third. I do my homework, David, I knew as much about you as you did about me.” Jack said dismissively. “That’s not what we’re here to talk about. I can be released into your custody, and I can help you catch these guys. Faster.” David laughed incredulously.

“You want me to just let you go?”

“GPS tracking anklet. The new ones have never been beaten. There’s precedent, there’s reason, I can help you!” Jack could tell his desperation was showing through, and he didn’t particularly care.

“No. That’s ridiculous.”

“You won’t get him without me!”

“I caught you without your own help. I can get him.” David motioned to the guard and the door swung open with the usual warnings directed to Jack. “Enjoy your four more years.”

So that was it.

Jack spent the last few hours of the day staring at the ceiling in his cell.

They’d taken his art as evidence when he’d run. His unfinished drawings.

They were supposed to be in color, but they didn’t let him have his paints. They were the most detailed original drawings he’d ever done, with all his color notes on the back so when he got out he could finish them.

They’d taken the only little piece of his cell he could have ever called anything close to home.

“Lights out.” A guard said.

“One more minute?”

“One.” Jack stood up and crossed the few feet to the wall covered in tally marks. He carefully added one more straight line, then stepped back and looked at the wall, crawling with the tiny black tick marks.

Three years and eight months worth of tallies.

He was only supposed to have four months left. Four months until he was free.

He’d escaped for a last chance to save a failing relationship, not that he would ever admit that, and when he’d found their old apartment abandoned, he’d stopped even trying to escape. And now he was doomed to fill another wall with angry black marks.

He couldn’t stand that thought.

Angry and depressed, he lost it a little bit and scribbled over all of the marks.

No.

If he had to escape again he would. He wouldn’t survive a full four years more in here.

***********************

Ten at night with a file in front of him at the dining room table. Not all that unusual, really, for David Jacobs, but it had been a long time since he’d had this one out.

“Jack Kelly.” His husband said, leaning over behind him. “Still my competition after all these years, huh?”

“He’s not-“

“You’re really thinking about what he said?” Crutchie picked up a birthday card from the pile and flicked it open. “Happy golden birthday David Jacobs. Congratulations on reaching thirty-one. Love from jail, your greatest success, Jack Kelly. You know he loves to get into your head.”

“We’ve been chasing this guy for three years, Crutch. And he figured out what his next move was gonna be from a single fiber on my suit coat. He could help.”

“Or he could run and destroy your career.” Crutchie reasoned.

“Hey, we’re two and oh right now.”

“And even you say catching him when he escaped was too easy. Something was up with that.”

“I know, I know. It’s crazy.”

“And you’re gonna do it anyway.” Crutchie shook his head. “Come to bed soon, Davey? It’s getting late.”

“I will.”

It was crazy.

It would work, he was sure of it.

Jack Kelly had been as good as this guy.

Better.

He’d been suspected of every white collar crime in the book. Art forgery, theft, fake identities, long cons, short cons, anything you think of, he’d been suspected of.

And they’d only caught him on one set of forged bonds, and only because they’d found his ex-girlfriend and gotten her to trap him.

If Jack wanted to catch this guy, this guy would be caught in no time.

But it was crazy. He’d just escaped from prison four months ago, he was supposed to be stuck for another four years, and David was considering letting him out. His greatest success.

He was considering letting his greatest success out of jail.

No, not considering.

He was going to do it.

It took three days for the paperwork to process, which was incredibly fast, and then David was standing in front of the prison, watching Jack Kelly walk towards him, grinning, out of his prison orange and into the outfit David recognized as the one he’d been wearing when they’d first caught him. Nice pants, a white t-shirt, and a fancy coat.

“Let me see it.” David said, making sure he hadn’t somehow already found some way to escape the anklet.

“I wear this, I stick with you, I solve your cases.” Jack’s grin didn’t fade as he pulled up his pant leg to show off the bulky gray anklet strapped on.

“This is temporary.” David reminded him.

“Oh, but if I do good enough, it becomes permanent. They said so.”

“Well.”

“If you do well enough.”

“I’m not a Harvard grad like you.”

“Let’s go.”

“Do I get a badge?”

“No.” Jack opened his mouth like he was going to say something more and David cut him off. “You get a place to stay and a job at the FBI. You get to get out of prison. You don’t get a badge, or a gun, or any kind of immunity. Half the cases against you are still open investigations in some capacity. Don’t push your luck more than you already have.” Jack mumbled something under his breath. “What?”

“The only thing you’ll ever be able to prove are the bonds, and you know it. And I don’t want a gun. I don’t like guns. You know that.”

“I know you haven’t killed anyone as far as we know. Pardon me for not trusting the word of a con man.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hello I'm Asper and I'm a big bi nerd who loves these boys and these two very separate things that are very fun to combine!
> 
> Come hang with me on Tumblr @enby-crutchie!
> 
> Thanks to Cara @marvelmerlinao3 on Tumblr who messaged me about this and doesn't mind me using those ideas in my own work! Hopefully I didn't just steal everything you said ghjksg


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